The Gold Split - Week #36: Consoles Can Go Faster, Too?
Week #36 (Mar 27): Fast SNES consoles; Twitch; Donkey Kong 64 History; Guitar Hero; Event News; Fun Fact; New Records: Hollow Knight, Super Mario Galaxy, Spyro, Half-Life, NES Batman, Elden Ring
Happy Week #36!
I do concede that the actual week number in the year 2025 is 13 and apologise for rocking the boat to everybody who keeps track of time by using the week number. We Germans are known to do this, but who else? Let me know!
Contents
Up to Speed ⚡️
I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, new glitches, events, or other topics I should cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week ✨
There are several factors outside of player skill that can make a difference in a speedrun, but that are usually accounted for in order to level the playing field: different emulators, console generations, storage mediums… the list goes on. But usually, console hardware between identical consoles of the same generation is assumed to perform perfectly consistently. This assumption of consistency is necessary in order to make runs comparable.
Tool-Assisted Woes
In the world of tool-assisted speedruns, the humble SNES has troubled the community for a long time. Attempting to play back a tool-assisted speedrun on a real console rather than an emulator would more often than not lead to desynchronisation issues. When inputs are scheduled to happen down to the individual frame, consistency is key.
As reported by ArsTechnica, 404media, and IGN, Allan Cecil, better known as dwangoAC, keeper of TASBot, has recently launched a large-scale investigation into the underlying issues. On Bluesky, he asked community members with an SNES and a flash cart to run a software test on their console and report the outcome.
More than 100 people responded, and the results were consistent. One specific frequency measurement seems higher on average than it was more than 20 years ago, implying that this part of the console may be becoming faster as it ages.
Technical Details
The aforementioned articles do a much better job at explaining the technical details, so I’ll keep this short. The SNES uses an audio processing unit (APU) with a digital signal processing rate of 32,000 Hz, at least according to the documentation. This sample rate is set by a ceramic resonator, and these types of resonators are known to be affected by external factors like heat.
Emulator developers had already noticed a trend toward a faster sample rate in the 2000s. In order to compensate and to make the emulator work for all games, the emulated sample rate is set slightly higher than the documented one, at 32,040 Hz.
dwangoAC’s collected test results from the community suggest that it might now be even higher with an average of 32,076 Hz, while heat fluctuations had a much more minor impact than expected.
In practice, a faster sample rate means that audio data is being delivered slightly faster. This often happens during room transitions or between levels. During regular gameplay the game still runs identically, but loading times will be sped up ever so slightly, not noticeable to a human.
Real-Time Speedrunning
We all want to know: what does this mean for real-time speedrunning on SNES hardware? Well… it’s complicated. The consensus so far seems to be that the difference in loading times between consoles is not big enough to impact RTA speedrunning, and that even on longer runs we’re far away from deviating by even a single second. Secondly, the true impact also depends a lot on the individual game, the audio driver and the interactions between them.
There are however plenty of games played at a very high level on real SNES consoles that measure their leaderboard times down to the millisecond. Hypothetically, if two runners in a longer run like Super Metroid (Any%) or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (No Major Glitches) finish less than a second apart, could the difference in sample rates be enough to matter? I can’t say.
Ultimately, there is not enough reliable historical data to confirm the trend that the speed of the SNES consoles has increased with time. The only other sources are Nintendo’s documentation and single measurements on a smaller scale. It might very well be that the speed is consistent over time, but varies more widely than expected between consoles. It’s an important reminder that perfect consistency is difficult to achieve.
Further Reading
Besides the already mentioned articles by ArsTechnica and 404media, I recommend the much more technical blog post by undisbeliever.
You’ll find the data from the community’s test results on Grist and can stay up to date with the most recent developments or join the discussion on the TASBot Discord.
Up to Speed ⚡️
🔔 Speedrun.com reminds you of Twitch Highlights (Bluesky Post)
I didn’t mention it in the intro this time, so I apologise if you thought you had managed to avoid your weekly reminder. This time it’s courtesy of speedrun.com, reminding you to check your profile’s “Pending” tab and to keep your Twitch-hosted videos safe from deletion, or to mark them accordingly. Refer to their full post from three weeks ago for all the details.
🏅 What if Super Mario speedruns were an Olympic Event (5-minute read)
Similar to the format he used for The Legend of Zelda speedruns, Contos takes a look at the country- and player-specific medal tables for 2D and 3D Super Mario games. The US is dominating the country rankings, largely thanks to Niftski, but the following positions might surprise you.
📜 Donkey Kong 64 (101%) World Record History - Part 3/3 (60-minute video)
The final episode of this world record history trilogy covers the modern era, from mid-2021 until the present day. Bismuth explains how speedrunners have managed to shave another 30 minutes off the record time over the past five years. Towards the end, he also showcases every trick used in the category and ranks them by difficulty and risk.
🎸 Guitar Hero’s hardest challenge was finally beaten (23-minute video)
Not missing any notes in Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flames”, played back at 200% speed, was one of the final open challenges in the Guitar Hero franchise—until recently. CarnyJared accomplished this incredible feat after years of preparation. In this video, Abyssoft puts it into perspective, outlines the path to get to this point, and explains the techniques used at this level of mastery.
Briefly
📅 Prevent-A-Thon showcase submissions and volunteer applications are open until April 5th (Bluesky Post)
🇬🇧 Schedule for UKSG Green announced (Oengus)
Event News 📅
While Really Really Lots Of Lore 6 is still going, another themed event is already starting today! Multithon 2025 is all about showcases where you don’t go alone—after all, it’s dangerous! On their schedule you’ll find races and cooperative speedruns, but also runs featuring main characters accompanied by companions. Matching the theme perfectly, the event is raising money for the best companions: autism service dogs at BluePath Service Dogs.
🏁 Finished
NoReset6 raised $15,569 for the Virtual Guardians Foundation
⏱️ Running
Until March 31st: Really Really Lots Of Lore 6 (Schedule), benefitting the Transgender Law Center
🔜 Upcoming
Starts Today: Multithon 2025 (Schedule), benefitting BluePath Service Dogs
Starts March 29th: GDQ’s Trans Day of Visibility Celebration (Schedule)
This Week’s Top Times 🏆
Some massive new times arrived this week!
Lep’s new Hollow Knight record improved the previous record from July 2023 by 31 seconds and marking the first 30:xx the category has ever seen. Additionally, this is the longest time the category has sat without a new record!
amarishiro also improves on Super Mario Galaxy by 31 seconds, dethroning an even older record set by HardcoreGaming in May 2021!
Dayoman played out of his mind, setting the first time below 1:20 in Spyro the Dragon 120%. He has been at the top of the category since June 2021, continuously bringing down the time towards this milestone!
🥇 First Place
Hollow Knight (Any%: No Major Glitches) in 00:30:53 by Lep (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario Galaxy (Any%: Mario, 1P) in 02:26:36 by amarishiro
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSpyro the Dragon (120%) in 01:19:57 by Dayoman (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeHalf-Life (WON: Scripted) in 00:25:23.582 by Kisimov (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeBatman: The Video Game (NES) (Any%) in 00:09:45.432 by st4nzzz
Video • Twitch • YouTubeElden Ring (Any%: Glitchless) in 00:52:55 by Iridium_ore
VideoSuper Metroid (Low%: Ice) in 00:48:01 by Oatsngoats
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSonic Riders (Heroes Story: No Ultra, Controller) in 00:13:45 by Ice72 (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeWheel of Fortune: Junior Edition (Any%) in 00:02:29 by ShesChardcore (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place
Metroid Fusion (Any%: Normal) in 01:11:00 by monkeysmb (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeDark Souls Remastered (Any%: No Dropmod) in 00:19:31 by aeiouSoT (It/Its)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNeon White (Level Rush: White, Heaven, PC (Steam)) in 00:30:12.988 by Nibareaux
VideoDonkey Kong Country Returns (Any%: Console) in 01:18:37 by Leah (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥉 Third Place
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Any% (No SSU)) in 00:48:30 by oldweak
VideoSekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Shura: PC, Glitchless) in 00:28:21 by BeicH
VideoQuiplash 2 InterLASHional (Bad Ending) in 00:02:04.867 by lilleh (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
Fun Fact of the Week 📈
As far as real life sports are concerned, many share commonalities with video game speedruns. Track and field, swimming, skiing, cycling, and many more have the sole goal of achieving a better time than the other competitors on an equal playing field.
A newer and lesser-known addition takes this concept and points it vertically upwards: speed climbing. Athletes compete side-by-side to scale a 15-metre-tall wall with a very slight overhang. The route hasn’t changed since 2007, and the world record, which may only be set in official competitions, stands at 4.74 seconds for men and at 6.06 seconds for women. I’m not sure if I could cover that distance in the same time horizontally…
Just today, 15-year-old speed climber Yicheng Zhao achieved a time of 4.656 seconds in a youth competition. Unfortunately, due to the setting, this won’t count as an official world record. It will be another year before Yicheng Zhao is able to compete in adult competitions, but current record holder Samuel Watson already responded like a true speedrunner:
Reddit Choice 🔝
The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread about the world’s oldest untied speedrun world records.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, April 3rd 2025. 👋🏻
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